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About Us.
The Essex and Suffolk Joint Twinning Congress brings together twinning associations from across East Anglia to share ideas and experiences. Many towns and villages have long-standing connections with their European twins, and more communities may wish to join us. We all work actively with our friends in Europe to expand mutual understandings and build lifetime friendships across international borders. Twinning offers unique oportunities to get to know our European neighbours in dynamic and friendly ways.
February 2024
Abbeygate Sixth Form College, Bury St Edmunds, has been chosen as the only European Parliament Ambassador School in Suffolk. Congratulations!
Abbeygate Sixth Form College - European Ambassador School
January 2024
Best wishes to all twinners for the coming year's activities.
November 2023
News from the Earls Colne Twinning Association.
"This year, our French counterparts in Nonancourt laid a wreath on our behalf at their Armistice Day cérémonie. The message reads, "To the memory of the people of Nonancourt and of Earls Colne who died for their country."
I organised this because I am keen to make the Twinning about more than just one weekend each year and a name on the village sign. We're hoping to make the wreath-laying an annual thing. Of course in Normandy the friendship with Great Britain is particularly strong at times of remembrance. I'm sure we're not the first Twinning Association to do this, but it was the first time we'd done it in Earls Colne.
In France, the principal flower of remembrance is the blue cornflower, which grew alongside the poppy in Flanders Fields."
News from Beccles Twinning Association, twinned with Petit-Couronne in France. Photos from their recent vist to France can be found at
Beccles Twinning Association
"Everyone agreed that it was another great trip and many new connections were made. Two thirds of the group made their first visit to Petit-Couronne, and with ages spanning 8 decades, they were all great ambassadors for Beccles.
The organisers of our Olympic project are now over a quarter of the way to their target of 1 million, so please keep sending your squares and pompoms to Beccles Library. Red, white, blue, yellow, green and black, are now those colours particularly needed. If you are new to this project, please email for further information on the requirements."
A report from a 13-year old visitor.
"This was my second trip to Petit Couronne. I had a really good time! My highlights were eating cake for breakfast, going to the huge hypermarket, meeting new French friends, the massive French meals (which were delicious) and going on a shopping and sightseeing trip to the local city Rouen. We also learnt how to play pétanque (a French game a bit likeboules) which was great fun and quite amusing as I speak very little French! I really enjoyed hearing French being spoken all around me and learnt lots of new useful words and phrases. I even bought myself the French version of Tom Gates (the children’s book) to try reading and understanding French. Our French family were really kind and it was fun to try andunderstand what they were saying and try out a little bit of French myself."
Photos of these events are on the Gallery page.
Our AGM on October 7th was well attended, and several topics of mutual interest were discussed.
August 2023
Many associations have successfully resumed their twinning links in 2022 and 2023, and it will be a great pleasure to hear about them at our forthcoming meeting on Saturday October 7th.
Chelmsford, Brentwood and Great Waltham have invited us to meet this year at Galleywood Heritage Centre.
See Events Page for more details.
December 2022
Best wishes to everyone for the Christmas season, and long may twinning activities prosper in 2023.
Our October AGM was hosted by Lowestoft. It was wonderful to meet again in person, and there were many lively discussions. We had a lovely walk through Lowestoft in the afternoon, landing up with refreshments on the beach. Thank you to all concerned for a great day.
Notes and minutes from October AGM here
Chelmsford, Brentwood and Great Waltham have jointly invited us to meet together on Saturday October 7th 2023.
Summer Update May 2022
Several Twinning Associations are now becoming active again, and we are all looking forward to new beginnings.
Lowestoft hosted us again, on Zoom, for our October 2021 AGM.
Notes from AGM 2021
Lowestoft has invited us to hold our AGM yet again, this time in person, on October 8th 2022. Let's hope we can get there this year!
We were very pleased that Elaine Oddie was elected to be our Treasurer.
The British-German Association has published a very useful guide to re-invigorating Town Twinning Associations.
BGA Guide
https://www.britishgermanassociation.org
The Manningtree-Frankenburg Partnership will celebrate 52 years of friendship by welcoming a group of German visitors from 16th-19th June.
Sudbury Town Twinning Association will be welcoming guests from Fredensborg, Denmark between July 14th-20th, and Höxter, Germany from September 2nd-5th.
Jubilee celebrations in Beccles will be enhanced by 1,500 hand-made bunting flags from their friends in Petit-Couronne, France. What a wonderful gesture!
Our 2021 AGM was held on Zoom again this year.
Hosted again by Lowestoft, we discussed ways in which Twinning Associations can actively participate in sustainability and climate change activities.
Notes from the meeting will be available soon. We look forward to meeting in person in Lowestoft in 2023!
Minutes of AGM 2021
Notes and ideas from AGM 2021
The 2020 AGM was held on October 10th, and it was a great pleasure to see more than 14 associations represented for our first online event. Minutes and notes from the meeting are below.
Minutes of AGM
The October 2019 edition of Suffolk Norfolk Life contains an article written by Rachel Sloane about the Twinning Congress.
Twinning with Europe and beyond...
News update.
EHIC cards post-Brexit, from the BBC. Will EHIC cards be valid after Brexit?
No-deal Brexit- what does it mean? Article from The Independent newspaper
We are a non-political, self-funded group of Twinning Associations from Essex and Suffolk. We meet annually to share ideas and information, and to discuss ways of improving and extending our links with our European neighbours.
Our 2019 AGM was hosted by Haverhill and District Twin Towns Association on Saturday October 12th.
It was a pleasure to welcome 4 new associations hitherto unable to attend meetings - Ongar, Panfield, Stowmarket and Tendring.
Several associations gave presentations about the work and activites of their groups. Read them below.
The 2018 AGM took place on Saturday October 13th, generously hosted by the Dunmow-Dourdan Association.
The meeting was well-attended and delegates found it to be a useful session.
Notes from Dunmow AGM
Several Associations gave presentations during the AGM about the work and activities of their groups. Results are published below.
Haverhill and District Report to AGM
Felixstowe Wesel Report to AGM
Lowestoft-Plaisir Report to AGM
Contact us here to find out more about what we do.
Armistice Weekend visit to France.
Haverhill and District Twinning Association visited Pont Saint Esprit to mark this special 2018 anniversary.
Click here to read about the visit.
Our 2017 AGM took place in Felixstowe on Saturday October 14th. We are grateful to Felixstowe for hosting this event.
Notes from Felixstowe AGM 2017
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation comes into effect in May 2018. Members have already been contacted regarding our new Data/Privacy policy.
For further information, visit the Information Commissioner's Office where you can find information about all aspects of Data Protection.
Minutes of 2016 AGM held in Colchester
Bury Friends of Compiegne recently hosted a lunch to celebrate 50 years of Twinning links. Congratulations all round!
Sudbury Town Twinning Association celebrated their 10th Anniversary with Fredensborg in Denmark in 2017, and celebrated again in Sudbury in June 2018.
Twinning groups across Suffolk and Essex who are not yet members - do please get into contact!
The British German Association, and the Bristol/Hannover Council hosted a conference "Challenge and Opportunity in Furthering British-German Understanding" in Bristol, May 12th 2017. This was of direct interest to all Twinning Associations.
Click here for more details about the
British-German Association
Bristol-Hannover Council
Town Twinning and Brexit. June 2016.
The Essex and Suffolk Joint Twinning Congress represents the many East Anglian communities, large and small, that are twinned with European towns and villages in several different countries.
Whatever the politics of different nations, and whatever will change in the future, we all remain committed to the principles of Town Twinning.
Rest assured that all our member associations will continue to work towards extending, not restricting, opportunities to promote friendship and understanding for all British and European citizens wherever they live.
The Essex and Suffolk Joint Twinning Congress brings together twinning associations from across East Anglia to share ideas and experiences. Many towns and villages have long-standing connections with their European twins, and more communities may wish to join us. We all work actively with our friends in Europe to expand mutual understandings and build lifetime friendships across international borders. Twinning offers unique oportunities to get to know our European neighbours in dynamic and friendly ways.
Twinners welcome visitors of all ages and backgrounds into their homes, and the hospitality is returned when we visit the twin town. We always receive the warmest of welcomes. Languages are not a barrier to enjoyment, although an interest in learning other languages is always appreciated. We are keen to encourage individuals, clubs and teams across the region to participate in these opportunities. So if you are a member of a sports team, music group or social club, why not contact us ? We could put you in touch with like-minded Europeans and your group could soon be on its way. We are especially keeen to encourage young people.
See us in the East Anglian Daily Times
Colchester students in Avignon - an international celebration